Method for receiving and displaying thematic audio-visual programme sequences, and receiver therefor

Abstract

The invention consists of a process for receiving and for screening audiovisual transmissions broadcast by a network. The transmissions consisting of events and of short transmissions possessing a distinctive element, these short transmissions being broadcast by services identifiable by this distinctive element. At a certain moment specified by the broadcaster, a sequence is transmitted on the network, it is replaced at the level of the display of the receiver by another sequence extracted from a service broadcasting short transmissions. The choice of this service is made at the receiver level. To avoid the appearance of a black screen between the network's transmitted sequences and the short transmissions, the receiver dispatches a filler transmission to the screen. The invention also consists of a digital television receiver for implementing the process.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. Process for screening audiovisual transmissions transmitted by a center and received by a television receiver, transmissions of events being broadcast on a first broadcasting service and being selectable by a user, said events being interrupted by at least one transmission of a first sequence, the at least one transmission of a first sequence being broadcast on the first broadcasting service, the process comprising at the receiver:
 screening a part of said event broadcast before an interruption of the event by a transmission of the first sequence, 
 screening a filler transmission following the screening of the part of said event broadcast before the interruption of the event by a transmission of the first sequence, the screening of the filler transmission being not synchronized with the screening of the part of said event broadcast, the filler transmission being a still picture accompanied by looped sound content, the still picture and the sound content being recorded in the receiver, 
 screening a portion of a transmission of a second sequence being broadcast on a second broadcasting service selected by the receiver, said second sequence comprising a plurality of flash events, said screening commencing at the starting point of a flash event of said plurality of flash events, the transmission of the second sequence being not synchronized with the transmissions of the first sequences and stopping the screening of the filler transmission at the time the screening of a flash event is commencing, and wherein the second sequence is selected in response to a user assigned percentage, the user assigned percentage relating to a distribution of content topics; 
 screening a part of said event which is broadcast after the transmission of the first sequence on the first broadcasting service is finished. 
 
     
     
       2. Process for screening audiovisual transmissions according to  claim 1 , comprising a prior step of screening a filler transmission, the filler transmission being screened following the screening of the end of a flash event of said plurality of flash events of said portion of the second sequence and stopping at the start of the screening of the event transmission at the end of the event interruption, the filler transmission being a still picture accompanied by looped sound content, the still picture and the sound content being recorded in the receiver. 
     
     
       3. Process for screening audiovisual transmissions according to  claim 1 , characterized in that an audiovisual or visual document used to produce the filler transmission is extracted from a specific broadcasting service before being recorded. 
     
     
       4. Process for screening audiovisual transmissions according to  claim 3 , characterized in that the audiovisual or visual document used to produce the filler transmission is regularly recorded in the memory of the receiver. 
     
     
       5. Process for screening audiovisual transmissions according to  claim 1  wherein the second sequence comprising information flashes having a short duration compared to the events. 
     
     
       6. Process for screening audiovisual transmissions according to  claim 5 , characterized in that the information flashes have a duration of 10 seconds up to minutes.